Melodrama was a popular genre in theatre production that emerged in the late seventeenth century. It aimed to strike at the heart of the public without a great textual effort but resorting to scenographic effects and to a clear division of the characters between good and evil. Characters were specifically modeled by good or bad feelings and all their actions were evident, without suffering contradictions. Their feelings and speeches were exaggerated and overdramatized to the limit of the parody, and provoked with ease the identification of the spectator (Turner-Jones).
However, during the second half of the nineteenth century, a movement emerged as a reaction to melodrama. This movement is known nowadays as modern drama, and back then it was dominated by two literary tendencies that had a reflection in dramatic literature in the form of theatrical representations: Realism and Naturalism (Turner-Jones).
In the mid-nineteenth century, Realism was defined in Europe as a cultural movement that sought to end the trends implanted by romanticism and melodrama. Realism in theatre presented a colloquial and familiar speech, and its characters not only spoke in a natural way but also possessed the psychology of common human beings. The realistic theater was characterized by the presentation of contrasts: traditional versus peasant, modern versus urban, or the exodus from the countryside to the city, as well as the moral dilemmas that these situations caused. One of the general characteristics of realistic theater was its effort to present reality in an objective way. The main resource of the plays of that time was the direct observation of the habits and the psychological behavior of characters. Also, issues directly related to the viewer were recurrent, such as the defense of ideals, marital conflicts, and other situations in which the public could feel identified. In addition, the scripts usually employed a colloquial language that placed the characters in their real environment (Cash).
On the other hand, Naturalism shares a lot of characteristics with Realism in theatre plays. However, the theater of Naturalism implied other principles a little bit more complicated, which were based on scientific theories that appeared in that time, and affected more to the topics (usually treated taboo subjects) and the treatment of characters and their actions. The main objective of Naturalism was to reproduce reality with an absolute and perfect objectivity in all aspects, both the most sublime and the most vulgar. For example, in naturalist plays, stage time was exactly the same than real time. Furthermore, in Naturalism, traditional aesthetic principles were denied to propose a revolutionary equation between the beautiful and the ugly, therefore claiming what the great aristocratic and bourgeois literature had rejected for centuries (Cash).
A Piece of My Heart, written by Shirley Lauro, was published in 1992. From Thursday, 2 February until Saturday, 4 February this production was played at Lindenwood University’s Emerson Black Box Theater under the direction of Rosalia Portillo. The performance, which lasted approximately 120 minutes, describes the personal experiences of six American women who served during the War of Vietnam. These women, whose occupations were nurses, Red Cross workers, a country singer, and an intelligence agent, narrate their own points of view in several different moments before, during, and after the war.
If we only looked to the nature of the characters of A Piece of My Heart, it could be certainly considered a realistic work. They are people that can be identified as “one of us”, that is, very normal people with common jobs, with who the audience can easily create bonds and feel related. Furthermore, the great psychological analysis through which characters undergo gives rise to a deep speech in which they illustrate all their feelings and emotions perfectly, making the audience feel almost the same pain, fear, or anger. It is worth mentioning that this phenomenon is not only due to the way the play was written but also to the great job of very talented actresses, actors, the director, etc.
In my opinion, the performance recreates the crude reality of the war with impeccable and complete objectivity, while it aims to depict the smallest details of the characters’ mental states. Throughout the play, the feelings that the six women experience and exhibit are very variable, changing depending on the time period at which the play is located. Before and during the war, the behavior of all the characters is quite similar. They are all manipulated and fooled so that they will accept going to Vietnam, and they become very excited about their expectations of their role in the war. However, as soon as they arrive at the war zone they realize that everything they were told was a lie, and fear invades their minds. Due to this fear, they usually turn to alcohol, which only worsens the situation. Another aspect that is also portrayed in the play are the complicated love stories between the nurses and soldiers, which most of the times end up with the death of the man, and contribute as well to deepening these women in their depression more and more.
Nevertheless, the part that I think is the most powerful of the play is the action that takes place during the second act, when the characters return to their homes after the war. Personally, as someone who has left his country for a long period of time, I felt very identified with some of the sensations that they go through, but of course, setting aside the obvious differences like the fact that they went to a war while I am an international student. When the characters of A Piece of My Heart arrive at the U.S., they expect to be received as heroes and to find themselves in a world that has been waiting for them all the time they were gone. Unfortunately, the reality is very different, and they come home only to find out that the world has kept moving while they were deployed, and that they are now lost in a place that does not feel like home anymore. This syndrome is known as “Reverse Culture Shock,” and according to the U.S. Department of State, it is the mixture of feelings that take place when you come back home after a long time overseas and realize that life has followed its course while you were away. The feeling that you become a permanent stranger is very disturbing and difficult to overcome, and it makes you feel lost in a place that you considered your own home.
However, Reverse Culture Shock is not the only problem that the characters of Lauro’s play face at their arrival to America. They also find out that certain sectors of the population, the so-called pacifists, hate them for the mere fact of being involved in the war. Furthermore, in the specific case of MaryJo, the country singer, she also realizes that her agent is not going to pay all the money he promised for her concerts in Vietnam, and she goes bankrupt. Also, Sissy’s child suffers a rare disease related to the toxic gasses that she and her husband were exposed to during the war, and doctors do not believe her and treat her as a maniac. These are only two examples of how harsh and bitter were the conditions of those who thought that would be received as heroes back home.
It would seem by all the factors mentioned above that A Piece of My Heart is a naturalistic or realistic play. Nonetheless, there are certain elements of the production that make it differ from those styles. The first one and most obvious is the stage time, which is supposed to be equal to the real time in productions of Naturalism and Realism. The play is a representation of situations that lasted from before the Vietnam War to many years after the conflict, and therefore it is impossible to match the stage time to real time, which actually is no longer than two hours. Another aspect that differentiates A Piece of My Heart from naturalistic or realistic works is the design of the set and the costumes. Whereas in theatre plays from Naturalism and Realism “costumes, sets and props are … accurate and very detailed, attempting to offer a photographic reproduction of reality” (Cash), the scenic design chosen this time by the director was very simplistic and did not relate in any way to the locations where the action takes place. Whereas regarding the costumes, they are the same throughout the whole play, regardless of whether the characters are in the middle of combat or back home visiting the doctor.
To sum up, I think that this play can be fitted in the definition of modern drama. However, it cannot be entirely classified either as realistic or as naturalistic. Just the same way that Naturalism and Realism overlap with each other in some aspects, A piece of My Heart combines facets from both styles, but it does not completely fulfill the characteristics of any of them. The play describes and presents people from real life, studied from all possible angles in real-life situations, showing very human feelings and with a thorough psychological analysis of the characters, which are far from being depicted as the typical heroes of other warlike productions. Furthermore, the feelings that the characters go through are at the same time feelings with which a large part of the population of this country can feel related to, and therefore provokes a reaction of empathy in them. Nevertheless, it differs from Naturalism and Realism in aspects such as that the stage time is not equal to the real time, or the setup of the playing area, which far from being accurate and representative of a real environment, is composed of only “three platforms of different heights … plus a downstage center ground level playing area” (Lauro, 3).